We recently made a trip down through the US Southwest and encountered quite few plants that were new to us. Firstly, the cactuses .. for the one from Palm Springs, I'd like to know both what the long skinny cactus and the plant bearing yellow flowers are. The cactus that looks like a bundle of deer horns and the low, flat cactus with the red flowers were both in the Phoenix Desert Botanical Gardens. The tree with the beautiful pink / purple flower (two pictures) was in Phoenix; we saw two of them on the boulevard in one of the swankier neighbourhoods, and the plant with the odd spike-like seed pods was growing beside the road in the Joshua Tree Forest, in California. Secondly .. could anyone recommend a really good cactus identification book? It isn't something that we normally have much experience with in the rainy Pacific Northwest. Don
In photo #3, I don't recognize the cactus but the tree looks a whole lot like Tecoma stans. The purple-flowering tree reminds me of Bombax spp, but I'm not quite sure. Somebody will come along who is more knowledgable than I am about the desert flora of the US.
I've checked the original hi-res photos and it does appear the tree is the Hong Kong Orchid Tree (Bauhinia × blakeana) and the yellow flowering plant is Tecoma stans. Thanks, folks.
1. might be a Cholla but I have no idea which one. 2. might be Echinocereus triglochidiatus 'White Sands Strain'
